Leave twisting frames to the Chiropractors...

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Hey all-

In effort to make our cars the best handling they can be, I just wanted to give a shout out about our 1st of several new frame brace kits in the works. Available now is this one for 68-72 Chevelles/ A Bodies. It includes laser cut plates for frame rail boxing, a system of bracing bars that tie the body, rear lower control arms, and frame rails together, and it incorporates the fully adjustable and easily removable trans cross member we use on our Speedtech Pro Touring Subframe. It tucks up nicely within the frame rails and there's plenty of clearance for big exhaust. When it's all installed it adds a significant frame stiffness increase which translates to a more stable and responsive car and less pitching our passengers out the window on hard corners because of excessive lean.

Here's a link to the brace kit on our website, and below are some additional eye candy photos. Check it out!

http://www.speedtechperformance.com/...rod/prd398.htm

Pre Welded Mock Up...



Final Product...









Note how it triangulates the lower control arm mounts.







Note where it bolts to the floor for more stability in tying things together.

[jaybee]

Nice! Any feel for how much the tubular structure increases stiffness over and above boxing the frame?

[Buryingthesun]

wow, looks great!

What other cars do you plan on making them for?

[j-c-c]

Nice! Any feel for how much the tubular structure increases stiffness over and above boxing the frame?

Enough not to toss passengers out the window I suppose.lol

Not familiar with this body frame, but it looks like most everything already is boxed, and if so, I don't follow your question, for clarity sake.

[jaybee]

Ben's post said "It includes laser cut plates for frame rail boxing". Boxing the frame has an impact on stiffness...how much more does the rest of the structure add on top of that?

[instro84]

nice, i kow some g body guys would want this setup.

[killer69]

Ben's post said "It includes laser cut plates for frame rail boxing". Boxing the frame has an impact on stiffness...how much more does the rest of the structure add on top of that?

Tt would be hard to come up with an actual number that made sense?? what would you like to measure? how much weight on the rear corner does it take to move the front corner? I can tell you that when the chassis is sitting on 4 jack stands (under the 4 outer corners of the chassis mid section)you can no longer twist the frame Cross ways. all the flex is moved to the rear of the frame rails and not much can be done about that except a roll cage. As for the added inner frame. it serves a couple purposes, one it helps to tie the frame side to side which makes the frame more of a single unit. it ties the rear trailing arms into the frame and cross members. it allows for strong adjustable cross member with out it being 5 feet long. so no flex there.

[killer69]

wow, looks great!

What other cars do you plan on making them for?

we will get to the G Body as soon as it is time to tear mine apart. and when we get a early Chevelle in the shop we will adapt this kit for the early car. it is probably really close to fitting the 64-67 cars as all the parts are cut to fit. but with out trying a couple we cant say it will work 100%

[jaybee]

Tt would be hard to come up with an actual number that made sense?? what would you like to measure? how much weight on the rear corner does it take to move the front corner? I can tell you that when the chassis is sitting on 4 jack stands (under the 4 outer corners of the chassis mid section)you can no longer twist the frame Cross ways. all the flex is moved to the rear of the frame rails and not much can be done about that except a roll cage. As for the added inner frame. it serves a couple purposes, one it helps to tie the frame side to side which makes the frame more of a single unit. it ties the rear trailing arms into the frame and cross members. it allows for strong adjustable cross member with out it being 5 feet long. so no flex there.

Oh, I'm not meaning to be critical...in fact I really like your approach. It's relatively light weight by taking advantage of everything around it to tie in at multiple points, effectively creating multiple new body mounts. In particular I notice how well it takes the lower control arm forces and spreads them to multiple areas of the structure, even adding some dimensionality by tying into the top of the driveshaft tunnel.

[SSninja]

we will get to the G Body as soon as it is time to tear mine apart.

Can't wait until that is announced!

[killer69]

Can't wait until that is announced!

Just out in the shop looking at the bottom of my GN............ NOT PRETTY. The floor is so low in these cars and the exhaust is all below that, it looks like a rear cross member might be doable but with so many variations of engines and trans and maybe even floor pan styles??? who knows if the olds cutlass is the same as the Buick and Chevy??? for all 12 years. on mine with the Turbo down tube there is almost no room to do a parallel tube up the tunnel. we will keep looking at it though.